KoA: Reckoning - Answers from the Team, Trailer

Dhruin

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The latest batch of community questions have been answered on the Reckoning forums. Here's a lengthy answer about difficulty and skilled players using the action combat system to cut through the game:
Q: Because of the Destiny system in Reckoning, your character is set up to be a real powerhouse. I am aware of Reckoning's difficulty setting, but what other measures will be taken to ensure that players will not be running through Amalur with such a powerful character being pit against opponents who do not measure up? – By TheAgarrar
A: Great question! This is a unique design challenge we ran into when we started out, because we didn't want a highly skilled player to be able to dominate extremely high level enemies. We really want your RPG choices to matter – the investment in skills & abilities, the armor and weapons you have equipped, and Destiny you have chosen – these should all play a larger impact on combat than your ability to parry or kill groups of enemies without getting hit.
The answer to this question could go on for a while, so I'll limit myself to three points: One Versus Many, Enemy Variety, and Over-Leveled Enemies.
One Versus Many is a great way to think about our combat as a whole. The hero in Reckoning IS a powerful being, and fighting against one enemy is rarely a challenge. Fighting enemies in groups presents the real combat challenge. While a strong hero can juggle a single Murghan until it's dead, doing so with two other Murghan and a Banshaen is a sure-fire way to get flanked and take a lot of unnecessary damage. So, you’ll need to think about where each enemy is, be on the lookout for incoming attacks, and consider the presence of any obstacles like walls or poison pools. Our combat camera does a great job at keeping all the enemies on screen so you have all this information and aren't getting hit with any cheap shots.
Enemy Variety is how we keep things fresh and keep you on your toes. We put a lot of effort into making a bunch of enemy types, and keeping them different enough from each other so no two enemies fight exactly the same way. Then we thought about how these enemies fight alone, how they fight together, and how they fight when mixed with other types of enemies. This gives us a huge palette to try out different combinations, and be really creative with how we challenge you with groups of enemies. One of our most devastating combinations has turned out to be the Ettins and wolves. Ettins are strong melee fighters and try to get close to the hero, but are moderately easy to keep at bay by themselves. But when they are paired with a single wolf, the wolf will use its long range running attack to hit you, and by the time you've recovered, the Ettin will be right up in your face – often with a flying leap attack!
Finally, fighting Over-Leveled Enemies, or baddies that are much higher than your player level, is an exercise in futility. They will shrug off attacks as if your weapons were feathers. Their own attacks can't be parried, and they have bonus resistances to damage and stun. When these action elements are combined with the sheer damage numbers they can deal out, the fights are clearly not in your favor.
These are just three examples of how we keep things challenging for you. We can't wait for you to get your hands on it and see just how fun it is. – By Joe "JoeQ" Quadara, Lead Combat Designer
There's also a new Destinies and Fate trailer.
More information.
 
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Not sure I like the description of fighting over-leveled enemies. That sounds like the kind of artificial resistance and damage scaling used by MMOs to keep people gridning the proper zones for their level. No I'm not trying to compare the game to WoW - though that would be an example of this sort of damage/resistance scaling that I would be loathe to see.

Focusing on enemy variety is a nice thing to hear them using as a means to keep players from blowing through it - the idea that you actually have to learn new tactics and strategies to get by some new enemies as you go is a very good thing. It's often an under-emphasized form of difficulty in games since it is the hardest to achieve - because it requires more design and testing work on the part of the developers to pull off.
 
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It is pretty much the same thing as older games where if you go to the wrong place you will be totally outclassed by higher level enemies.
 
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It is pretty much the same thing as older games where if you go to the wrong place you will be totally outclassed by higher level enemies.

But that wasn't an exercise in futility - in some of those games from older ultimas to the original final fantasy you would know you were in over your head but you could kill things on the periphery for an extra challenge. It wasn't "an exercise in futility" but just plain hard. Making over-levelled enemies effectively futile by including level difference in the damage equations is a far more modern technique meant to discourage players from taking on things it feels they shouldn't fight yet, regardless of whether they could do so in the absence of level-difference based damage scaling.

I'm hoping you're right and their statement is just an exaggeration because that sort of artificial "you're not ready for this area" stuff can be a little stifling. I guess it depends whether it will feel a little like Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 where you could seriously get things handed to you if you went to places you were not prepared, but could still overcome the challenges with skill and strategy. Alternatively it could be like WoW where level differences will artificially render excessively high levels nearly impervious to your attacks, thus providing more of a brick wall till you level up rather than an exceptional challenge.
 
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My favourite implementation is the one in Gothic 1 and 2 - enemies don't scale at all. They're hard coded. If you're not ready to face a Shadowbeast yet, you'll know because he eats you.
 
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My favourite implementation is the one in Gothic 1 and 2 - enemies don't scale at all. They're hard coded. If you're not ready to face a Shadowbeast yet, you'll know because he eats you.

Exactly.

So simple, so perfect.

I'll never know why developers expect gamers to stop playing because they're met with a challenge. As long as there are reasonably obvious alternative paths to take - gamers will find their way.

Those who won't, would bitch unless everything was a pushover and I assume no one really wants that.
 
I'll never know why developers expect gamers to stop playing because they're met with a challenge.

It depends on the challenge. If in good mood, I'll try 10 times, if in bad mood, I'll quit after 5 tries.

But something around 20 is my personal number that "breaks" it … But I have no idea, I must admit, whether I'm the norm with it or not.

And as long as there are other ways to get through a challenge, then I'm fine, too.
 
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Well, it's not that I don't appeciate them trying to please most people. But I honestly think they fret too much over people not getting a "perfectly balanced" experience - which today means something relatively easy.

Sure, it would be nice in Skyrim if every dungeon you entered was scaled correctly - but it just doesn't feel right.

Just have enough low level, mid level, and high level stuff - and let the player explore at his leisure.

Even if some of it is too low or too high at times, it just means more reason to replay it in different ways….

But oh well…
 
Not sure I like the description of fighting over-leveled enemies. That sounds like the kind of artificial resistance and damage scaling used by MMOs to keep people gridning the proper zones for their level. No I'm not trying to compare the game to WoW - though that would be an example of this sort of damage/resistance scaling that I would be loathe to see.

Indeed. I hate that kind of artificial scaling. It was most noticeable in borderlands where shooting a much higher level enemy would give you a lot of 1 damage figures popping out. I mean yes he's tougher and will probably kill me but let me duke it out with him dammit!
 
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I'm hoping that Skyrim will use a Fallout 3/FNV style of scaling. I found both games to be pretty satisfying combat-wise. Loved coming upon a Radscorpion at level 5 and running away because all I had was a pistol, only to come back later with a combat shotgun and blow the suckers away. Same with the yellow ghouls, those things were very intimidating for quite a while.

The problem with super-leveled enemies is that it is a way to force linearity. If your game world is supposedly open but there's a whole bunch of areas you can't explore because of monster level restrictions, then you just threw out the open portion of your game. KOA only has one shot to get this right, and super-leveled enemies could be a game killer if not done well.
 
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Not sure I like the description of fighting over-leveled enemies. That sounds like the kind of artificial resistance and damage scaling used by MMOs to keep people gridning the proper zones for their level. No I'm not trying to compare the game to WoW - though that would be an example of this sort of damage/resistance scaling that I would be loathe to see.

Indeed. I hate that kind of artificial scaling. It was most noticeable in borderlands where shooting a much higher level enemy would give you a lot of 1 damage figures popping out. I mean yes he's tougher and will probably kill me but let me duke it out with him dammit!
 
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Agreed about the over-level thing. I loved being able to fight the lich in the city in BG2 with a low level party. It was hard, but it could be defeated with the right preparation. Very satisfactory and a very good way to learn the game mechanics.
 
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FYI, the lead combat designer posted a follow-up answer in that thread to a similar question:

Q: By the way, skilled players won't be able to kill higher lvl mobs?

A: It is possible, although extremely challenging. Personally, I like being able to go defeat high level mobs with my bare fists just for fun.

That's the problem with some of the Q&As, you get one person fretting over whether a game will be too easy, and the answer is tailored to them to ease there fears, while somebody else will be worried about it being too hard. In the end, we'll just have to play the game and see for ourselves…
 
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FYI, the lead combat designer posted a follow-up answer in that thread to a similar question:



That's the problem with some of the Q&As, you get one person fretting over whether a game will be too easy, and the answer is tailored to them to ease there fears, while somebody else will be worried about it being too hard. In the end, we'll just have to play the game and see for ourselves…

Thanks for posting that followup - that's good to know.
 
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